Studying anywhere, whether in your home country or abroad, can be incredibly hard, as students are increasingly under pressure to perform well academically and enter competitive job markets. Starting a new school year can cause anxiety and stress in anyone. But there are ways to deal with those unpleasant feelings. Mind Mapping is one of them. So what better way to get started than by using Mind Maps to boost your creativity and memorization?
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What is Mind Mapping?
You’ve probably heard of mind mapping before, but if not, let me do the honours by introducing this versatile tool. Mind mapping was created as a useful tool for ‘brainstorming’ a topic. Mind mapping is a tool that assists students with many aspects of their learning. It is essentially a visual representation of information and can be used to visualise, generate, take notes, organise problem-solving, revise, make decisions, and clarify any topic so that you can proceed with your assessment tasks.
How to use mind mapping?
Mind mapping can be used in the following ways:
- Taking notes in a lecture and listening for the most important points or keywords
- demonstrating links and relationships between the main ideas in your subject
- brainstorming everything you already know about essay questions.
- Begin planning an essay by visualising all aspects of the question.
- Organising your thoughts and information by putting it all on one page
- Stimulating creative thinking and problem-solving solutions
- Going over previously learned material in preparation for a test or examination.
How to create a Mind Map?
To create a mind map, begin in the centre of the page with the central theme/main idea and work in every direction to create a growing diagram composed of keywords, phrases, concepts, facts, and figures. Let’s delve a little deeper into some of the main characteristics of a mind map to better understand it:
Central Theme
This can be the main idea or a problem that needs a solution. It is usually represented by either a textual title or an appropriate symbol or image.
Association
Associations are branches that are spread out from the centre. There are mainly two types of association: primary and secondary association. Primary associations branch out from the centre itself, while secondary associations branch out from the primary associations. One thing to keep in mind is that the number of primary associations should be kept under seven because our brain can only handle connections up to that point.
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Keywords
Each association in the mind map should be labelled with a single word or a short phrase that summarises the connection.
Contiguity
Associations must feel connected. When there is too much space between each connection in your mind map, the associations become disconnected.
Colours and Imagery
The more vivid your mind map is, the more likely you will remember it. Our brain processes visual cues more effectively than textual cues. Incorporate colours and imagery into your mind map in a way that adds value to your conceptual understanding. You can use different colours for different associations to make them more eye-catching.
What does a mind map look like?
Figure 1: Example of Mind Mapping
Benefits of using Mind Mapping
Mind mapping may be an effective strategy for you to consider if you want to achieve higher levels of concentration and creativity, as well as greater organisation and more concise communication.
The advantages of mind mapping are numerous and diverse. In summary, they are as follows:
- It gives an overview of an important and broad topic and helps you to represent it more concisely.
- Helps you to see the bigger picture and creative pathways
- it helps you to plan/make decisions about the resource material you have for an assignment and where you will put it
- providing a more appealing and enjoyable format for your eye/brain to look at, brainstorm, and remember
Hopefully, this blog helped you in understanding what mind mapping is and what are the benefits of using it.
